A grant from the Texas Medical Association Foundation enabled hundreds of children in West Houston to attend school this year, as the Spring Branch Community Health Center (SBCHC) provided their routine immunizations, as it has every year since 2012.
The initiative is one of several supported by Vaccines Defend What Matters local impact grants of up to $3,500. These grants support outreach and the provision of vaccines and education at events staged by TMA member-physician practices, county medical societies, TMA Alliance chapters, and medical students. Applications are currently open through the TMA Foundation grant portal for the first of three rounds of grants to be disbursed this year. The first deadline is Feb. 7, with grantees notified in mid-March and funds released by the end of that month.
Applications for the second and third rounds of local impact grants will be due May 23 and Aug. 22, respectively. Applicants can submit grant applications once per round.
“This year things are tough [for families]. We use the funds to help us pay for the supplies – the Band-aids and gauze and needles, and then we also use it to pay for backpacks” that the center provides for students who attend, said David Krusleski, MD, a family medicine physician and chief medical officer of SBCHC. “It’s a one-stop shop.”
The grant SBCHC received from TMA in 2024 allowed the center to bring 355 school-age children up to date on the immunizations required for them to attend school. In the 2022-23 school year in Harris County, where SBCHC is located, 90-95% of kindergarteners were up to date on their measles vaccinations, putting the county below the 95% herd immunity threshold recommended by experts to keep measles from spreading.
“I’m one of the few people who have actually seen measles in my life, back when I was in my residency,” Dr. Krusleski said. “It’s nothing I want to see again.”
Preventing the spread of communicable illnesses such as measles through grassroots efforts like the vaccine drive can help families establish a relationship with SBCHC, a federally qualified health center.
Many of the people who attend the vaccine drive are not regular patients of the center, Dr. Krusleski says, and may not have a physician whom they see regularly. “But for this vaccine, they actually come to us, and because [TMA] is able to give us this extra funding, we can reach out and provide an incentive for them to get to know us and to come in and get their vaccines.”
SBCHC aims to reprise its application and continue expanding TMA’s service and footprint at the local level.
“Our team looks forward to working with TMA every year,” Dr. Krusleski said.
Local impact grant applicants can find examples of program budgets and final grant reports here and see additional TMA Foundation funding opportunities here.
Jessica Ridge
Reporter, Division of Communications and Marketing
(512) 370-1395